Many efforts have been made to enable audience feedback to broadcast and entertainment industry programming, to evaluate consumer reaction and opinion of the content. Industry and academic researchers have devised schemes to monitor and analyze audience reaction. Results are typically described as feedback, the essential first step in gauging consumer attitude, but not close to describing the cultural ambiance. While the monitoring may be in real-time, the analysis is usually after the fact. The data collected is generally opaque, and lacks diversity and control.
In Hollywood, The Preview House shows new films and TV pilots to a hundred or more invitees, to gauge their reaction before a film or program is finally edited or released. In some cases, alternate scenes or endings are tested in an attempt to tune the production to the viewers' tastes. Here, participants sit in luxury seating with a “joystick” input device built into the armrest. Data are compiled and may be viewed in real-time or stored and analyzed later, although resulting sample size and diversity limit comprehension. You may have determined whether a scene is liked or disliked, but not the insight to know why or how to fix it.
In June, 2014, CNBC launched a program enabling real-time viewer polling with on-screen display of results during the discussion, a significant step forward in audience communication and feedback. The audience is directed to a website to vote yes or no on the issue being discussed. Running results are tabulated and displayed live, in percentage terms. Now, sample sizes may be substantial, and a measure of audience interaction is introduced in that participants can view the running display of results.
There remains a need in the art for an apparatus and system that can gather opinion information from multimedia viewers that does not interrupt their viewing experience without producing excessive noise, annoyance, or demanding excessive visual attention.
More broadly, with the present invention, it is possible to gather and aggregate national or regional audience input, display the data as part of the broadcast content, discuss and analyze results with the audience, question the audience further in detail, offer additional argument and even persuasion, all in real-time. In other words, a broadcaster may have a conversation with a national audience—with the intimacy of a focus group. Of additional benefit is the rich data base generated by participant registration, and data tabulated on multiple dimensions: geographic, demographic and socioeconomic.